(Continued) What is Enlightenment? There are several meanings that people attach to it. In the interest of clarity, I would like to briefly describe what I mean by Enlightenment here. Enlightenment is not simply a state of knowing, insight, power, clarity, wisdom, or sublime happiness. While it includes all of those things, Enlightenment is a direct awareness of life, without any mental modifications; it is total freedom - freedom from any structure, concept, ideology or philosophy, no matter how clever or advanced. Enlightenment is beyond the human mind's understanding. The process of Enlightenment is not sudden but very gradual. It is not like you are not enlightened and suddenly, one day you wake up enlightened, or that any one experience, no matter how profound, makes you enlightened. It is not even a "state" that is bestowed upon you with a first experience of "Samadhi" (see part 2 of this article). Swami Prabhavananda, a distinguished disciple of an enlightened teacher Sri Ramakrishna once noted that advanced spiritual practice BEGINS with Samadhi. It does not end there... Enlightenment is endless and there are many levels of Samadhi that offer mere glimpses into the world of Enlightenment. And, while the actual experience of Samadhi is rare, full Enlightenment is even more unique in this world.
Each time you meditate and stop thought, or even just earnestly strive to stop thought, you get closer and closer to the experience of Samadhi. Here's where a possibility of true magic opens up: every time you come back from a deep meditation, instead of retracing your steps back to the person you were prior to the meditation, allow the Najual, Power, or Samadhi to erase you as a particular individual... Now you are moving into the enlightenment process. You are gradually erasing limited ideas, understanding and experience of who you are and moving into expanded awareness, allowing the universe to flow through you and becoming more than you could ever imagine. During deep meditation, Power loosens the glue that holds your "spiritual DNA" together, while your intent for complete transformation and trust in the direction of the universe guides you to new identity and a new awareness. This new awareness is not simply a continuation and growth of who and what you were before going into your meditation, it is metamorphism and transformation in its ultimate form, similar but even more profound than the transformation occurring during the death and rebirth process; spiritual evolution that occurs at the speed of light. And every time you touch the state of Samadhi, you touch the power of the universe at its core.
So, the personal power that each one of us has is the amount of access to the overall source, the universal power. Personal power can be stored and accumulated over time. We accumulate personal power as we reincarnate, over and over and over again. Each time we come back from a deep meditation, is like being born into a new life; only our memories pull us back to the person who went into the meditation. Our self-effort in each lifetime puts us closer and closer to the source and, over time, we build a bank of personal power within a body of awareness. Power is tangible. Similar to the money that we deposit in the bank every month which gradually accumulates into a sizable fortune, our stored power accumulates into karmic patterns that open the doors for us to deeper exploration of the universe. And, just like the money in the bank that you can spend on frivolous pursuits and never get to your dream fortune, spending your power on useless mental and emotional hang ups and draining relationships will keep you continuously from attaining your total freedom, Enlightenment.
Storing and accessing personal power is a science that has been explored by all esoteric spiritual traditions, from Zen Buddhism, to Tibetan Mysticism, to Tantra, to Native American spiritual arts. (To be continued)
Transcription of a live recording of Mila Kandibur, CEO, Diamond Mind Coaching, L.L.C., San Diego, CA
See part 1 and 2 of this article for references and definition of terms.
Mila Kandibur, CEO, DiamondMind Coaching, LLC
San Diego, CA 92122
http://www.diamondmindcoaching.com
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